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Local internet competition continues to heat up, with 8ta recently announcing cheap new mobile broadband packages. MTN is right on their heels though, now revealing enhanced uncapped internet packages.

The new offerings, effective from the 1st of July, has been implemented in response to customers' increasing demand for faster, and more reliable internet access at an affordable monthly cost.

The price reduction on the packages are truly astounding, with MTN Broadband Uncapped Lite being reduced from R749 to just R299 per month. In addition, MTN Broadband Uncapped Pro is down from R1 999 to only R899 per month.

The packages will be subject to MTN's fair use policy, with a 3 GB and 10 GB fair use limit applied to the respective 24-month contract packages. The fair use policy is in place to “ensure the integrity of the network and that the consumer experience is seamless.”

Under this policy users' connection speed will be reduced once they reach either the 3 GB or 10 GB data ceilings. Speeds will be downgraded to 128 kbps, although users on both packages will still be able to access the internet and download as much content as they want, it will just be a lot slower.

Some customers feel that because of the “fair use” limits placed on these packages, MTN should not be allowed to use the term “uncapped” to describe their offerings.

The packages will be sold in conjunction with an MTN Sh@reLink WiFi internet router which allows the family or your office to share the same network connection. All customers will also benefit from the fastest available MTN broadband speeds, and according to the company this can reach speeds of up to 21.1 Mbps under ideal conditions.

Most users will not experience quite these speeds though, but will still benefit from reasonably nippy speeds since MTN recently completed the rollout of its 14.4 Mbps network in all 3G covered areas. The 21.2 Mbps network is in the process of implementation in high demand areas.

“MTN is committed to providing fast broadband network access even in outlying areas in South Africa and will be announcing plans soon on how we will achieve this. This is part of one of our key objectives to provide all consumers with the best broadband service in South Africa at an affordable cost,” said Serame Taukobong, MTN SA chief marketing officer.

MTN also recently launched new carry over features which will enable subscribers to carry over their unused internet data to use it during later months.